Ikarie XB 1 (1963)
When:
—
Venue:
Birkbeck 43 Gordon Square
IKARIE XB 1 (Dir. Jindrich Polak, Czechoslovakia, 1963)
If the Cold War was a clash between competing visions of modernity, then cinema was a key battleground in the fight for popular imagination of the future to come. While many films projected tyrannical dystopias or nuclear devastation, however, a few envisioned more positive prospects that fulfilled the promises of their era’s ideologies and technologies. One of the most original and multi-layered of these productions, the Czechoslovak science fiction epic Ikarie XB 1 visualised the future of socialism in the form of a spaceship travelling in 2163, anticipating themes and visuals that were soon mirrored by the likes of Star Trek and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
This is the first of two sessions looking at the Cold War through the lens of East European cinema, both of which will be introduced by Rui Lopes, Lecturer in European History at Birkbeck’s Department of History, Classics and Archaeology.
Contact name:
Matthew Barrington